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Problem w/ dealing Fukudome is his NTC for 1/2 of the teams in baseball and his contract. The Cubs will have to eat a large amount of his contract if they want to get rid of him and put Colvin in the OF. Also, I get the feeling that the Cubs will try and re-sign Lilly, but if they don't hopefully they offer him arbitration and get a 1st round pick out of him.

As bad as D Lee has been hitting, the Cubs have no replacement for him for next season. There's been talk of Soriano moving to 1st, which would be awful.

Yeah, but the fortunate thing is that most of the teams that are in need of Fukudome are not on his restricted list. The Nationals are, but he can always change his mind, if he thinks the team will compete. The 3 biggest names are the Yanks, Red Sox and Padres. None of those 3 are on his list. Besides, if he isn't starting for the Cubs, which he isn't anymore, he would happily waive his NTC to go get some more playing time. The issue with Fukudome starts and ends with his salary. How much is Hendry willing to eat, in order to get something in return? Is he merely looking for a salary dump? My guess is the latter, which makes it a much tougher trade. My prediction is that he gets dealt to the Pads for a very "meh" prospect, with the Cubs paying half of what is owed to Fook in 2011 and the rest of his salary this year. It would save the Cubs around $7 million towards next year, however.

I don't see the Cubs re-signing Lilly. Any year before this year, and I would have agreed with you, as giving an aging Cubs player a big extension is what Hendry does best. However, Ricketts has already come forward and said that we will be building from within, and we already have too many starting pitchers without bringing Lilly back. Unfortunately, that means we are not very likely to offer him arbitration either. I have just come to the realization that Hendry is allergic to compensation picks, and that I should never get my hopes up about any of them. But just off the top of my head, assuming there aren't any trades made, we have Dempster, Zambrano, Wells, Silva, Gorzelanny, Cashner, Jay Jackson , Casey Coleman, Mitch Atkins, Jeff Suckmardzija (he's been very solid in AAA, believe it or not), Thomas Diamond and maybe even Chris Carpenter as possible rotation guys. No real ace in that group, but plenty of middle of the rotation types. Cashner has the potential, he just needs to get innings under his belt.

As for 1B without Lee, we could go a number of ways. First, there are quite a few 1B FA's out there after this year. Check out this list:

There are others as well. If we waited until the end, we could snag one of the last few remaining on a 1 year deal as a stopgap for our big FA splash at 1B in 2012 (Fielder, AGon or Pujols). Secondly, we could just bring up the Micah Hoffpauir. No, he's not very good, but he would be a decent, cheap stopgap, once again, until the loaded FA class of 2012. Another option could be Chad Tracy. He's been up and down, but he can play 1B. I could throw in Xavier Nady as well, although we would have to re-sign him after the year.

I will once again say that I am all for blowing the team up this year, taking our bumps the rest of 2010 and likely all of 2011, but then coming back with a vengeance in 2012. It wouldn't be popular with the fans or the media, but it would be the right thing to do._________________

Problem w/ dealing Fukudome is his NTC for 1/2 of the teams in baseball and his contract. The Cubs will have to eat a large amount of his contract if they want to get rid of him and put Colvin in the OF. Also, I get the feeling that the Cubs will try and re-sign Lilly, but if they don't hopefully they offer him arbitration and get a 1st round pick out of him.

As bad as D Lee has been hitting, the Cubs have no replacement for him for next season. There's been talk of Soriano moving to 1st, which would be awful.

Yeah, but the fortunate thing is that most of the teams that are in need of Fukudome are not on his restricted list. The Nationals are, but he can always change his mind, if he thinks the team will compete. The 3 biggest names are the Yanks, Red Sox and Padres. None of those 3 are on his list. Besides, if he isn't starting for the Cubs, which he isn't anymore, he would happily waive his NTC to go get some more playing time. The issue with Fukudome starts and ends with his salary. How much is Hendry willing to eat, in order to get something in return? Is he merely looking for a salary dump? My guess is the latter, which makes it a much tougher trade. My prediction is that he gets dealt to the Pads for a very "meh" prospect, with the Cubs paying half of what is owed to Fook in 2011 and the rest of his salary this year. It would save the Cubs around $7 million towards next year, however.

I don't see the Cubs re-signing Lilly. Any year before this year, and I would have agreed with you, as giving an aging Cubs player a big extension is what Hendry does best. However, Ricketts has already come forward and said that we will be building from within, and we already have too many starting pitchers without bringing Lilly back. Unfortunately, that means we are not very likely to offer him arbitration either. I have just come to the realization that Hendry is allergic to compensation picks, and that I should never get my hopes up about any of them. But just off the top of my head, assuming there aren't any trades made, we have Dempster, Zambrano, Wells, Silva, Gorzelanny, Cashner, Jay Jackson , Casey Coleman, Mitch Atkins, Jeff Suckmardzija (he's been very solid in AAA, believe it or not), Thomas Diamond and maybe even Chris Carpenter as possible rotation guys. No real ace in that group, but plenty of middle of the rotation types. Cashner has the potential, he just needs to get innings under his belt.

As for 1B without Lee, we could go a number of ways. First, there are quite a few 1B FA's out there after this year. Check out this list:

There are others as well. If we waited until the end, we could snag one of the last few remaining on a 1 year deal as a stopgap for our big FA splash at 1B in 2012 (Fielder, AGon or Pujols). Secondly, we could just bring up the Micah Hoffpauir. No, he's not very good, but he would be a decent, cheap stopgap, once again, until the loaded FA class of 2012. Another option could be Chad Tracy. He's been up and down, but he can play 1B. I could throw in Xavier Nady as well, although we would have to re-sign him after the year.

I will once again say that I am all for blowing the team up this year, taking our bumps the rest of 2010 and likely all of 2011, but then coming back with a vengeance in 2012. It wouldn't be popular with the fans or the media, but it would be the right thing to do.

I'd be fine w/ Branyan or Glaus on 1 year deals, but both strike out quite a ton. But if it means that we can get Adrian Gonzalez or Pujols in 2012 I'm all for it. I agree w/ your post mostly though.

Wow, the Cubs actually won. That hasn't happened much lately. You know what is scary? Even with as poorly as we've played, we are still only 6.5 games out of 1st. That's right. With almost zero production from our 1, 3 and 4 hitters, and some horrible bullpen performances early in the season, we are essentially two good weeks from being on top of the division. As I said before, we aren't chasing any juggernauts. The Cards have 2 big question marks in their rotation and their offense has been about as inconsistent as they come. The Reds' pitching has been lucky all year, although their offense seems fairly legit. But, with all that said, I still want to blow the thing up. I know the '06 Cards team showed us that anything is possible if you only make it to the playoffs, but I don't have a lot of faith it this team.

I became really interested in the minor leagues two or three years ago, and have found that when the big league squad is tough to watch, the farm system is a great way to divert your attention. Here is a little blurb on the guy I tabbed as currently the 6th best prospect in our system, the little-known and severely under-hyped Kenneth (Trey) McNutt:

Trey McNutt, SP (20 years old) - Single A - He was truly a diamond in the rough for our scouting director Tim Wilken in the 2009 draft. He was taken in the 32nd round after his first year at a community college. He has been absolute dynamite for us ever since. He features a mid-90's fastball, a power breaking ball and a change that is still a tick below average, but has made some big strides. He's always had great stuff, it was just a matter of putting it all together. Well, he has effectively done so in the Cubs' organization. There are 2 things he does very well: strike people out and induce groundballs. Those 2 things usually equal success. He is still on strict innings counts, as this is his first year as a full-time starter (under 100 total innings last year including his college innings), so he isn't going deep into games yet, but here are his numbers on the year:

The thought of Soriano playing first base makes me laugh. I'd almost rather see Big Z play there.

Anyway, I'd be fine with just offering D-Lee arbitration and keeping him around for another year or collecting a couple of draft picks. I think that the trade deadline will be pretty quiet this year, for some reason, and I can't imagine getting much value for him._________________

The offense is so frustrating to watch, but they found a way to win today. Fukudome was useful for once, even though they left the bases loaded and wasted a leadoff double by Castro

This really is depressing to watch, good start finally and no run support, looking like a classic underachiving ball club, and (I know wont happen) but blow it up, get the draft picks and rebuild for the next 2-3 years and have a viable team like we did when we had Alou.. _________________

Hayden Simpson, our surprise 1st round pick this year, has agreed to a contract, pending a physical. It is believed to be a bonus of 1.06 million, about .5 million UNDER the slotting recommendations by Bud Selig. The pick is making more sense now. I hope that extra money is spent in the international FA, where there are some very interesting names in Latin America this year. It's also good that Simpson signed early, and can get plenty of reps in the minors this year._________________

Another ugly game in the field...at least D-Lee seems to be coming around a bit, and Colvin is showing that he does deserve to play every day. We need to ride him out for a while here. If nothing else, maybe when he starts to fall off Kosuke can come in a little bit more and avoid his usual mid-season dive._________________

DLee has hit 3 home runs in the past two games. Could he possible be getting it going? I hope so because that would be perfect timing so that we could trade him in a month and a half._________________👮

AZBearsFan wrote:

He's a playmaker though, and we can use more of those in the Devin.Fart

DLee has hit 3 home runs in the past two games. Could he possible be getting it going? I hope so because that would be perfect timing so that we could trade him in a month and a half.

Agreed. He put on quite the show for the Angels this weekend. I just wish we could get something done there. I love D-Lee, and it would be tough to see him go, but the writing is on the wall._________________